The impending loss of third-party digital cookies will soon force the e-commerce advertising industry to shift its strategies fast. These developments are issuing a real blow to advertisers seeking to leverage third-party data. At issue now is how brands will regroup from these substantial changes to online advertising.

Called Email Protection, the feature will be initially distributed through a waiting list that anyone can add their name to. Consumers chosen from the list will be able to create a personal @duck.com email address. Email sent to the @duck address will be denuded of trackers before being forwarded to a consumer's primary email address.

Shouldn't you get paid when businesses use your personal information gleaned from the internet? How much is your personal data posted online worth to you? Would you register your personal data so that you get paid when companies track you and use your own data to target you for ads? That is precisely what Invisibly lets you do.

After a successful rollout in the U.S. earlier this year, Amazon is expanding support for end-to-end encryption for video captured on its Ring products. Part of what's motivating this is probably setting a higher global standard so wherever Amazon goes, they will be welcome by satisfying stringent local standards," said Brad Russell, vice president of Interpret.

Thousands of hacker attacks were launched on a network of smart home devices designed by researchers to assess the risk the gadgets pose to consumers. During the initial week the "honeypot" network was online, 1,017 unique scans or hacking attempts were directed at the devices on the net, which included smart TVs, printers, wireless security cameras and Wi-Fi kettles.

Cancel culture and politics aside, one of the more brutal threats lurking in the shadows of the internet is the slander industry. All too often, unsuspecting people become victims of websites that promote slanderous, often unverified information about individuals. This false and vilifying information lives on the internet forever and can sully an otherwise spotless reputation.

Apple on Monday revealed dozens of new features in the latest versions of its mobile and desktop operating systems at the kickoff of its annual Worldwide Developers Conference. "The emphasis of the whole presentation seemed to be making Apple products more useful for consumers," observed Gartner Senior Principal Analyst Tuong Nguyen.

More than 90 percent of U.S. users of the latest version of Apple's mobile operating system iOS 14.5 are taking advantage of a new feature to block an application's ability to track their activity on their phones. Worldwide, 88 percent of users shut down app tracking on their iPhones. This is bad news for advertisers.

The notorious Emotet botnet software began uninstalling itself from some one million computers Sunday. The uninstall command was part of an update sent to the infected computers by law enforcement servers in the Netherlands after Emotet's infrastructure was compromised in January during a multinational operation mounted by eight nations.

DuckDuckGo has announced an add-on to the Chrome browser that blocks Google's new scheme to provide marketers with information for targeting advertising at Internet users. The scheme called FLoC -- Federated Learning of Cohorts -- is being tested in Chrome, in some cases without the knowledge of the browser's users.

A recent study from Consumer Reports' Digital Lab reveals that 96 percent of Americans agree that more should be done to protect consumer privacy. But don't expect to see a whole new alternative Internet emerging any year soon. Instead, you will see a focus on software offerings built around privacy and security rather than hardware.

Businesses fearful their workers may be targeted by fraudsters will want to take a look at the free Tax Scam Awareness Kit offered by Proofpoint. The kit, for both Windows and macOS, includes materials for an employee education campaign about tax fraud, three educational videos, an infographic, answers to frequently asked questions about tax scams, and a tax scam flyer.

A rich cache of data on some 533 million Facebook users was posted to a hacker forum over the weekend and is available to download for practically free. In a statement provided to TechNewsWorld by Facebook, the company said it is confident the posted information is old data that originated from a weakness in its contact importer feature that was discovered and fixed in August 2019.

Lost customers and revenues are caused by password sharing and friction created at websites by onerous authentication procedures, according to a new report. The report explained that if accounts are being shared by multiple users, service providers are less likely to accurately monitor usage and are unable to correctly personalize their offerings.

Apple's plan to release its App Tracking Transparency (ATT) privacy enhancement feature in early spring has set the ad industry on its ear. ATT requires apps to get a consumer's authorization before tracking them or the devices they are using. Ray Wang, principal analyst and founder at Constellation Research, told the E-Commerce Times that "at least 40 percent of consumers will say no."

Cyberattacks are increasing in frequency, ramping up the data privacy threats they pose to government agencies and businesses alike. Governments both domestic and foreign need to step up efforts to pass legislation that bolsters technological defenses this year, warn privacy groups. Stiffer privacy laws are gradually being reviewed and signed into the U.S. market. But that process is mostly taking place at the state level.

An online map of surveillance cameras in New York City is in the works. The map project is part of a larger campaign called "Ban the Scan," sponsored by Amnesty International, which is partnering on the initiative with several other tech advocacy, privacy, and civil liberties groups. Data for the map will be "crowdsourced" by volunteers.

Google sent a shock wave through the advertising and publishing industries last year when it announced it planned to scrap third-party tracking cookies, which are an important tool for online marketers. Not to worry, the company announced Monday. It has a viable alternative in the wings. "FLoC" will be available for public testing with the March release of Chrome.

DuckDuckGo reached a significant milestone last week when it racked up more than 100 million searches in a single day. While still a paltry number compared to the more than five billion daily searches performed by Google, the milestone is a major one for the search engine that doesn't store any of its users' personal information, archive their search histories, or track their search activity.

In spite of being a beloved companion to computer hobbyists the world over, the Raspberry Pi doesn't get enough credit. In fact, single-board computers of all stripes haven't gotten their due -- I just happen to have a Raspberry Pi. It was upon casting a stray glance into the corner of my room where my Pi is, churning away on the previous task I assigned it, that I pondered all the loftier projects I have in mind for it.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is making good on a resolution to strengthen its enforcement of security deficiencies occurring in e-commerce transactions. The agency's recent action involving allegations of improper activities by teleconferencing provider Zoom Video Communications is a notable example.

The Federal Trade Commission seeks to obtain information on how many users certain social media companies have, how active the users are, what the companies know about them, how they got that information, and what steps the companies take to continue to engage users. The FTC also is gathering information on the companies' business models and how they target children and families.

The Big Three makers of video gaming hardware have announced a united front to make online gaming safe for all their players. "We can accomplish more when we work toward the same goal, and so we will each continue investing in, evolving, and amplifying our approaches to user safety," stated Dave McCarthy, Microsoft's corporate vice president for Xbox operations.

The @ Company wants to give you a more secure and human-centric Internet built on providing you with true ownership and control of your personal data. To that end, the company has launched an app built on its new privacy protocol. This new standard will attempt to change how online vendors and companies wheel and deal with the personal information of billions of Internet users.

When it comes to an appetite for data, social media outfits are the most voracious, according to a recent study released by cybersecurity company Clario Tech. The analysis of nearly 50 of the world's biggest brands found that Facebook collects more than 70 percent of all the data it can collect legally about someone using its service.

Healthcare records were digitized to help prevent medical errors such as misdiagnoses and mistakes with medication, but electronic health records have made it easier for bad actors to steal patients' highly personal information. Cybercriminals are further motivated by the fact that patient medical records are worth up to 10 times more than credit card numbers on the Dark Web.

RoboLinux is one of the most advanced desktop Linux distributions you can find. The latest release is even better, making it potentially THE best Linux variety available today for desktop users. The Oct. 9 release of RoboLinux 11.13 is an upgraded build of the project's Ubuntu-based distribution. But wait, there is a whole lot more to RoboLinux than just another Ubuntu-based retread.

Google has taken a step toward controlling spam voice calls on Android devices with a new addition to its phone app. The "Verified Calls" feature will display a caller's name, logo, reason for calling and a verification symbol indicating a business has been verified by Google. The service will initially roll out in the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Spain and India, with more countries to follow.

Online bandits are decreasing their schemes against businesses but increasing COVID-19 scams aimed at consumers, according to a report released Tuesday by TransUnion. Suspected fraudulent digital transactions against businesses worldwide dropped nine percent from the lockdown phase of the pandemic to the reopening phase.

After crashing in 2019, Dark Web markets for stolen credentials rebounded during the first half of 2020, largely due to major shifts in consumer behavior caused by the global pandemic. Hacked accounts for delivery services and physical fitness brands are some of the highest priced items on the market, according to a recent report.